Measure for measure.(Perspective)

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"Nature will bear the closest inspection. She invites us to lay our eye level with her smallest leaf, and take an insect view of its plain."--Henry David Thoreau.

We still can take in Thoreau's insect view of nature (or anything else), but we don't have to "lay our eye level with her smallest leaf." Technology, of course, has made stunning advancements since those words were written in the middle of the 19th century, just prior to the Civil War when the camera was in its infancy. Even what we inspect today--let alone how--would be beyond the great conservationist's conception. Explain to him that a micron is 1,000 times smaller than a millimeter or an Angstrom is 10 million times smaller than a millimeter. …